


Game Night

by WintersCaptain



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Game Night, Hotch kicks ass at kahoot!, M/M, No personal pronouns, Spencer cheats at monopoly, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, everyone is a little drunk, gender neutral reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:48:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25122670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WintersCaptain/pseuds/WintersCaptain
Summary: There has to be a game you can all play, right?Wrong.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner/Reader, Aaron Hotchner/You
Comments: 1
Kudos: 156





	Game Night

**Author's Note:**

> this was inspired by[ this exchange](https://winterscaptain.tumblr.com/post/622128823743463424/i-wanna-see-the-team-absolutely-go-apeshit-over) on tumblr a couple of weeks ago. i committed to the bit and here's the result!

“Goddamn it, Hotch!” Emily throws her phone onto the carpet and reaches for her glass of wine.

Hotch shrugs, taking another swig of his beer. “If you just got good, Prentiss, I wouldn’t win so much.”

“I regret teaching you that,” says JJ.

You lean across Hotch and clink your glass with JJ’s and insist, “It was a joint effort. I’ll take at least partial responsibility.”

_Get good_ had made you laugh since you first heard it. Unfortunately, Hotch picked it up along the way.

Derek stands and wanders into the kitchen to fetch another round of drinks. You are all stationed in Rossi’s “family room,” which is to say the room with the most couches and the biggest television, running through every board, video, and phone game available to find one in which the entire team was well-matched. As of now, everyone has at least one advantage that guarantees them a respective win.

Case-in-point: eight rounds of Kahoot! and Hotch is still winning by three full points. Though there have already been targeted campaigns to dethrone him, nobody can match his hilariously specific jabs at his colleagues. He’s already remarked on Penelope’s nicknames for Derek, Emily’s sexuality, Rossi’s divorces, and his even own divorce (twice – the first to throw them off his trail, the second simply too good to pass up).

Aaron snags you around the waist and pulls you close. You’re nearly halfway in his lap, so you take advantage and leaned back, resting your head against his shoulder. He has to be at least a little tipsy – he isn’t usually so demonstrative in front of your colleagues.

Though they all know you two are seeing each other, Aaron keeps his cards close to his chest when it comes to you. You’d asked him about it, once, stretched across his chest on the couch.

_“No, sweetheart. Of course, I’m not hiding us from our team.” He rubbed soothing circles on your back with his hand as you snuggled closer. “We are all wrapped up in each other’s lives all the time. It’s kind of nice to have something that’s just ours.”_

_You smiled at him. “Yeah. It is nice.”_

He kisses your temple.

“How are you still winning, as drunk as you are?” You ask, keeping your voice low.

The quiet laugh that sounds in your ear warms you from the inside out. “Because I’m the best.”

You suppress a shiver and refocus on the room around you. JJ and Emily conspire with Spencer as the timer to the next round ticks down. Derek returns with another bottle of wine and two more beers and sets them down on the coffee table.

“Okay, another round, please. I think I’ve got him this time,” Spencer says, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. He’s a man on a mission, and you can’t help but giggle.

Hotch sets his beer down and flips his phone into his palm, ready to go.

+++

“You’re kidding.” Spencer slumped back against the couch as he lost another round.

“It’s not fair!” Penelope said, laughing. “We have to play something else.”

You pressed a kiss to the underside of his jaw. “Well done, love.” You raise your voice above the drunken ruckus and count off on your fingers. “So we can’t play poker because of Aaron, we can’t play Cards Against Humanity because of Emily, we can’t play Sorry! because of Penelope, we can’t play Uno because of Derek, we can't play –“

You’re cut off by Spencer, who huffs indignantly. “We can so play those games. It’s fine if I don’t win. We can play whatever we want to play.”

“Oh wow,” JJ says, her Mom Voice in full effect. “We sure can’t if you’re gonna have a bad attitude like that.”

Spencer huffs again. “Can we try Monopoly?”

“It’s nearly one in the morning,” says Dave. “I have enough bedrooms for all of you, and you _will_ ,” he points at Garcia, who’s a giggling mess draped over Derek, “use them. I’ll make breakfast in the morning and it can be a big family vacation, right here at home.”

Emily leans back against JJ’s legs from her seat on the floor, looking straight up at Dave where he stands beside her. “Dave, you ever think about running for office?”

Rossi rolls his eyes.

“Alright!” Spencer says, fully recovered. “Monopoly! I’ll be the banker.”

Derek scoffs. “You cheat and you know it.”

“Doesn’t matter if you’re drunk.”

Spencer grins. “Thanks, Hotch.”

+++

You wake up in a pair of solid arms. Humming, you turn to face him and burrow further into his chest. A laugh rumbles through him.

Your eyes still closed, you ask, “How long have you been awake?”

“Less than an hour.”

“And you’ve been watching me sleep? Creep.”

Aaron kisses the top of your head. “You’re adorable.”

“Who won Monopoly?” To be honest, you’d lost track after your third glass of wine and the second half of Hotch’s fourth beer.

You open your eyes and see that he’s propped up a little on the pillows, clothed in a pair of pajama pants from his go bag and one of his soft white undershirts. You’re wearing nearly the same thing – but with your own pair of pants. “Spencer, but I think he cheated. We had to remove Derek for conduct unbecoming”

You grin. Rising further, you prop yourself on your elbow. You’re in one of Dave’s many guest rooms in the back of the house. This one has a sliding glass door that overlooks the backyard. Emily and Derek are already awake, nursing steaming mugs of coffee on the porch swing on the other side of the glass.

+++

“It’s so weird seeing them be...normal,” Emily says. “It’s really easy to picture Will and JJ at home, or even you having a life outside this place. But them?”

Derek smiles into his coffee. “Yeah. It’s nice to see him actually relaxed for once.”

They watch as the pair of you wake up. Hotch rolls over and half-covers you with his body, kissing you lazily. You sling an arm around his neck, your fingers winding through the hair at the back of his neck. You roll your eyes and chuckle at something they can’t hear, and press your foreheads together. They can see him say something else that has you throwing your head back in laughter. His mouth latches onto your collarbone, lavishing you in playful kisses until you pulled him back to your lips by the hair.

“I mean, it’s gross,” says Emily, “but it’s cute.”

Derek watches her. “You ever want that?”

She shrugs. “Maybe. Not sure when or how or who, but it’d be nice.”

+++

There’s a light tapping across the room, and Aaron lays his head on your chest, his eyes on the door. Your fingers stay in his hair, twisting little curls against his neck. His arm wraps all the way around you, his fingers finding a home tucked under your ribs.

“Come in,” you call. The door’s already cracked, and JJ can hear you, though your voice is soft and rough with sleep.

“I hope everyone’s decent!” She’s not chipper, per se, but she sounds rested. Her blonde head pokes around the door, and you can feel Aaron smile a little against your chest.

She can hardly contain herself, but you admire her effort to remain cool in the face of one (1) sleepy Aaron Hotchner resting comfortably in your arms. “Breakfast is almost ready, and coffee’s on.”

You grin at her. “We’ll be right out.”

**Author's Note:**

> hope you liked it! as always, i'm always keen to know what you think. 
> 
> come say hi to me on Tumblr @winterscaptain :)
> 
> xo,  
> tali


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